Step 3 of rate calculation

What are the steps in calculating the photosynthetic rate (umole O2 / m2 / min) for a leaf that with an area of 0.0025 m2 and a O2 evolution rate of 0.096 %O2 / min?

Step 1) convert %O2 to uL O2/L

096 %O2 x 10,000 = 960 uL O2/L

Step 2) convert µL O2/L to µmole O2/L

960 uL O2/L / [(273+23)/273) x 22.423] = 39.6 µmole O2/L

Step 3) multiply by the volume of the leaf chamber. As you see, the value from the previous calculation is umole/L; however, the volume of the leaf chamber is less than a liter (0.47 L, to be precise).

39.6 µmole O2/L x 0.047 L = 1.86 µmole O2 in the chamber

What is the final step of the calculation?

A. divide by the area of the leaf

B. multiply by two

C. add the leaf area to µmole O2

D. divide buy the light saturation point

 

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Copyright (C) 1998, Steven R. Spilatro, spilatrs@marietta.edu. All rights reserved